South Africa’s Pan-African HIV/AIDS Treatment Access Movement has targeted Coca Cola, demanding that what it calls Africa’s largest employer provide anti-HIV drugs to all infected employees, Business Day reported Aug. 26.
The group has set Oct. 17 as a “global day of action” against the corporation.
Some other South African companies, including mining giants Anglo American, Anglo Gold and De Beers, reportedly do provide the drugs.
Coke “has enjoyed a rapidly growing market, decades of escalating profit and low labor costs in Africa [but] refuses to pay for HIV treatment for the bulk of its workers,” the movement said.
Coke reportedly provides AIDS drugs to administrative staff but not to lower-level employees.